ON THE INTERACTION OF PURCHASING MOTIVES AND THE OPTIMAL PROGRAMMING OF THEIR ACTIVATION: A New Approach to the Evaluation of Advertising Themes 1. Introduction

In recent years considerable attention has been paid by marketing theorists to the role of advertising and other promotional activities within the marketing policy of the firm and to their optimal setting in the combined operation of the various instruments available to such a policy. These authors have generally assumed efficient spending of money on advertising as far as choice of media and of purchase motivating themes are concerned. It is the object of the present paper to consider in some detail the second of these two problems--the efficient selection of purchase motivating themes for activation through advertising.